What an unbelievably beautiful day today!

Today was sunny and 75 degrees. It was incredible outside and the kids and I enjoyed a great day at the park with our fun neighbors Grace, Luke and Mrs. Emily. We are so grateful for a fabulous neighborhood and are blessed with the friends that we have made.
Today I found out that Sydney knows the Pledge of Allegiance....it's totally adorable to hear her say it and I'm proud that she is in a pre-school that still teaches it.
Harper had a big day as well. She is talking more and more and really learning to use sign language to communicate as well. Her words are: momma, daddy, Sadie, Sissy, up, please and paci. Her signs are: eat, swim, bath, please, milk and more. She continues to battle sleep, but we're down to 1 or 2 wake ups at night instead of 5 or 6. She had a pretty bad fall tonight. It was another one of those moments where I'm certain I will not be nominated for Mother Of The Year. She was in the bathtub and I walked out for a mere second and she dove headfirst into the tile floor. She's got a pretty big goose egg on her forehead, but I think she'll survive.

In addition to ALL of that craziness I had a talk with Sydney about self confidence. I have to say that I worry about her confidence level...yet, I have to remember that it took me a good 20 something years to become a confident person - God's not done with her yet...I just can't help but wonder what my part in helping her is. Our discussion today was about inner beauty and outer beauty; about what the difference is; and about what, at the end of the day, is truly most important. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: "Sydney do you think you are pretty?"
Syd: very sheepishly "no" (btw -this totally broke my heart....she is beautiful as we all know)
Me: "it's ok if you think you are pretty - you just can't act like you are prettier or better than other people"
Syd: "ok"
Me: "what do you think it means to be pretty?"
Syd: "to always have cute clothes on and your hair fixed" (did I teach her this?)
Me: "are you nice to the other kids in your class?"
Syd: "yes"
Me: "do you think you are a good friend?"
Syd: "yes"
Me: "are you polite and nice to those around you?"
Syd: "yes ma'am" (don't you love how she threw 'ma'am' in on this one?)
Me: "do you know what inner beauty is?"
Syd: "no ma'am"
Me: "it's all those things that I just asked you about - do you know that that, above all else, is what counts in this life?"
Syd: "I do now"

I hope so